NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS. 247 



that they are rarely ornamented with lichens. The eggs, too, are similar 

 creamy-white, marked with spots of chestnut-brown, umber and lilac- 

 gray in wreaths about the larger end or center of the eggs ; the nmber de- 

 posited ranges from two to four, usually three. A set of three in my cab- 

 inet collected in Douglass county, Colorado, June 10, 1887, have the fol- 

 lowing measurements : .67 x .57, .69 x .57, .65 x .57. Mr. Norris' collec- 

 tion contains two sets of three eggs each, taken at Fort Klamath, Oregon, 

 June 19 and 20, 1888. They measure by sets: .67X.54, .66x.53, 

 .66x.54; .63x.$2, .66x.5i, .69X.53. The color of the markings in 

 these eggs are paler than those of C. vtrens. 



463. Empidonax flaviventris BAIRD. [322.] 



Yellow-bellied Flycatcher. 



Hab. Eastern North America to the Great Plains, south in winter through Eastern Mexico and Cen- 

 tral America. Breeds from Northern United States northward. 



A common bird in Eastern United States, where it frequents 

 thickets, swamps and woodland. It does not seem to have been met 

 with or observed during the breeding season so commonly as other 

 members of the genus Empidonax, which is doubtless due to the 

 peculiarity of its nidification, and from its limited breeding area within 

 the United States. Its note is as much entitled to the name of song 

 as many of the Warblers and other Oscines. 



A nest containing four eggs was found by Mr. H. A. Purdy on June 

 18, in Aroostook county, Maine, at the edge of a wooded swamp, built 

 in a ball of green moss in the roots of an upturned tree, two feet from 

 the ground. It was composed of dry moss, and the outside was faced 

 with the same in its beautiful green state. It was large for the size of 

 the bird, and was lined mostly with fine black roots, a few pine needles 

 and grass stems. June 10, 1878, Mr. S. D. Osborne found a nest of 

 this species, with four eggs, on the island of Grand Manan. It was 

 built in a good-sized hummock of moss at the edge of some low woods. 

 The cavity extended in about two inches, and was about four inches 

 deep, lined with a few grasses, black, hair-like roots, etc. Another 

 nest, similar in construction, was found by Mr. Osborne in Oxford 

 county, Maine, in a bunch of moss under the roots of a small tree in 

 swampy woods, bordering a small stream. 



Two nests of this bird were taken at Fort Fairfield, Maine, by Mr. 

 Charles F. Batchelder. One found June 14 was in wet mixed woods 

 of spruces, arbor vitaes and hemlocks ; it was on the edge of a bank of 

 a small brook, in a decayed tree trunk, and partly sunk in the sur- 

 rounding moss. This nest contained four eggs. The second nest, 

 which also contained four eggs, taken June 27, was deeply sunk in the 



